Paperwork backlog costs taxpayers $17 million to transfer inmates

LAS VEGAS (KSNV & MyNews3) -- It costs taxpayers $17 million a year to house Clark County inmates post-conviction.

Right now there are inmates sitting in jail when they shouldn't be and it's a very expensive.

Clark County inmates in jail for more than 45 days after a conviction are costing taxpayers $17.3 million a year.

In August the jail housed 346 such inmates who were awaiting sentencing or waiting to be transferred to state prison.Those inmates can’t be moved until their paperwork and pre-sentencing reports are complete.

The department tasked with filing pre-sentencing reports, is the division of parole and probation.

Bernard Curtis, the chief of the Parole and Probation Division, says budget and staffing issues are to blame for backlogs and missed deadlines.

“We’ve changed some of our employees requirements to lessen the amount of workload for each report however we’re still trying to provide a quality product to our courts and our attorneys,” Curtis said.

The problem could get worse.

State law requires the parole and probation division to complete reports 45 days after a conviction.

And a new law tightens deadlines requiring pre-sentencing reports be completed a week before sentencing.

That puts even more pressure on an already struggling department and piling up the bill that taxpayers have to fork over.

“We’ve implemented some procedures to address those in custody, we’ve also had some meetings with district court judges and the judges are willing to help us in any way possible to address this issue as best we can at this point you’re going to notice a change as time goes on,” Curtis said.